A SHIMAZU CLAN AAR
ROAD TO KYOTO
PROLOUGE

1545: The Sengoku Jidai. The age of the country at war. Or, as we, the Shimazu, call it, "the disastrous year where we lost our prized castle"

You see, we had a rather big castle, as big as those from the Ashikaga. The citadel was one of the most prized possessions of our clan, serving as an protective measure against the Ito morons who are too chicken to assault our magnificent castle.

In the 1st of December, 1544, our damiyo decided to make an huge stack of fire arrows "just to prepare for our offensive next year", eventually being so large that the entire citadel looked like an pine tree suited for the Nanban holiday of Christmas. While this is just a mere annoyment, fear spreads over that the entire castle can be burned down. We shot those theories down, claiming that their is no way that the fire arrows can be set alight, and even in the very unlikely event that it is on fire, the citadel is made of stone, so it cannot get on fire.

And indeed, the fire arrows never caught fire. But eventually, as our comforting to the common people turned into a overexaggerated boast that our castle is invincible, fate decided that this kind of tempting him/her is punishable.

In 1545 Januari, thanks to some guard who decided to smoke, the fire arrows set fire, and as consequence, the castle was lit ablaze.

It was horrible. I cannot say anything else about the fire.

The only silver lining was that the damiyo's family was gone somewhere else, and that I was gone.

However, there is hope. Scouts tell me that in Osumi lies an great citadel, worthy of our possesion. It is highly unlikely that the Ito can build such structures, but we will check nonetheless.

Tonight, we will march to Osumi!

-Tanegashima Tomokata, Commisioner for Warfare